ARC Tour & Book Review: The Twin's Daughter

Author: Lauren Baratz-Logsted
Title: The Twin's Daughter
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publish Date: September 2010
Rating: 4 Stars
Book Blurb: Lucy Sexton is stunned when a disheveled woman appears at the door one day…a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to Lucy's own beautiful mother. It turns out the two women are identical twins, separated at birth, and raised in dramatically different circumstances. Lucy's mother quickly resolves to give her less fortunate sister the kind of life she has never known. And the transformation in Aunt Helen is indeed remarkable. But when Helen begins to imitate her sister in every way, even Lucy isn't sure at times which twin is which. Can Helen really be trusted, or does her sweet face mask a chilling agenda?
Filled with shocking twists and turns, THE TWIN'S DAUGHTER is an engrossing gothic novel of betrayal, jealousy, and treacherous secrets that will keep you guessing to the very end.

Review: There's something about The Twin's Daughter that really left me with only one word to describe it, and that word is WOW! This is one book where the ending really left me with my mouth hanging open, and to be honest I was a bit befuddled with it.

Lucy and her family seemed so "together" at the start of the book. They were truly the "perfect" family. Then the mysterious twin showed up and things started to get strange and bad.

The only balance that Lucy had was Kit Tyler and even he brought a certain amount of heartache to her over the course of the story. Their friendship and eventual love was really the heart of the story and what held Lucy together as her family fell apart. He is really a wonderful foil to Lucy, aand from the start, you want these two together.

The whole situation with Aunt Helen, her mother's mysterious twin boggles the mind and changes everone's life. Then there's the murder that leaves one twin dead, but which. That's what really keeps the story moving. Is the remaining person Mother or Helen.

That's where it really starts getting strange. The behavior of Lucy's mother is so changed that you start to suspect that maybe it was the other twin that had died, but there is nothing to prove it. Though for a time, Lucy does come to believe that it is her mother that is gone, but then she marries Kit and everything unravels. Then there are the other tragedies in the family; her father's untimely death after a dinner party and her aunt Martha's death after her mother announces she's pregnant shortly after her marriage to Richard Earl.

The story is often confusing, especially after the murder in the parlor, with so much action and so many things happening to the characters, some of which weren't explained away quite as well as they should have been, but it doesn't detract from a story that really grabs you and pulls you in.

The ending is where things just don't sit right. All the loose ends are tied up much to quickly and without good explanation. I almost feel as though we were left hanging, because there was so much that wasn't explained away enough.